Napoleon I

Napoleon I (15 August 1769-5 May 1821), born Napoleone di Buonaparte (French: Napoleon Bonaparte), was a French general and emperor. Under his rule, France had subjected most of Europe to the rule of the French Empire, via vassals and conquests. He was eventually defeated at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 and his chances at creating a pan-European empire faded into air.

Biography
Born into an impoverished Corsican family of noble descent, Napoleon Bonaparte was commissioned as an officer in the French artillery in 1785. He decamped with his family to France at the height of the Revolution in 1793. Proving himself to be an able military officer, he achieved rapid promotion. He also proved an accomplished politician. In 1794, he survived the downfall of the ruling Jacobin clan, with whom he had been closely linked, and in 1796 married Josephine de Beauharnais, who was well-connected to the Directorate - the French governing body that succeeded the Jacobins.

Napoleon was aged 26 when he first took command in the field. The Army of Italy was a semimutinous body of men short of equipment, food, and pay. Understanding his soldiers' mix of grumbling self pity, collective pride, and base rapacity, he won their support with the promise of glory and plunder. He also had exceptional luck, for early victories could have easily have ended in disaster.

Empire Building
Fearing the political ambitions of a successful general, the Directorate was relieved when Napoleon's search for glory took him to Egypt. Though his victories over the Egyptian Mamelukes and Ottoman Turks were negated by Nelson's destruction of the French fleet at Aboukir Bay in 1798, the Middle East expedition provided an exotic boost to the evolving Napoleonic legend. Slipping back to France in 1799, Napoleon ratified his claim to power with a crushing victory over the Austrians at Marengo in 1800, and he took control of the French state. From that point on, Napoleon had the advantage of being both ruler and supreme commander of France and was able to transform the French forces into the tool he required to fulfill his extensive military ambitions.

Napoleon's defeat of Austria (twice), Prussia, and Russia in campaigns between 1805 and 1809 ensured his reputation as one of the greatest military commanders of all time. The basis for his victories was the rapid maneuver of large bodies of troops living off the land. He used speed of movement to achieve "a superiority of force at the point at which one attacks," in his own words. His army appeared unexpectedly behind the enemy or struck at enemy armies in quick succession, before they could concentrate in overwhelming numbers. On the battlefield, Napoleon liked to throw the enemy off balance by drawing the fighting to one wing, then punching with the maximum force of artillery, heavy cavalry, and infantry columns at a point where the enemy line had weakened.

Overreacher
Napoleon's drive to impose a continent-wide boycott of British imports led to widening war. The placing of his relatives or marshals on European thrones aroused resentment and, in Spain, a full-scale revolt. His marriage to Josephine was annulled in 1810 and he married into the Austrial royal family but never achieved acceptance Europe-wide as a legitimate ruler. His campaigns became increasingly costly - French casualties were around 8,000 at Austerlitz in 1805, but almost 40,000 at Wagram four years later. Losses in the Russian invasion in 1812 may have been over half a million.

A Final Flourish
As war dragged on, a megalomaniac streak began to undermine Napoleon's reasoning, and his health deteriorated due to his constant campaigning. The brilliance of his battlefield tactics waned; at Borodino, in 1812, he merely flung his forces forward in a frontal assault against Russian defensive positions, achieving no more than a Pyrrhic victory at a crippling cost.

Yet, he never lost his hold over his troops. He understood that citizen soldiers required heroic leadership and he tirelessly cultivated his personal image and mythology. His skills in the large-scale defensive campaigns of 1813-14 have been much admired. His ability to stage a comeback in 1815, a year after abdication, with Frenchmen flocking to serve him, speaks volumes for his undimmed charisma. But from defeat at Waterloo there was no return.